Civic engineers refuse to pay fine for potholes

In a bid to prevent action being taken against them for shoddy work done on filling potholes, engineers from the road department have told the civic administration that they wanted to be transferred to other civic departments.

In a bid to prevent action being taken against them for shoddy work done on filling potholes, engineers from the road department have told the civic administration that they wanted to be transferred to other civic departments.

The sub-engineers from the roads department, on Wednesday, held a meeting to discuss the ‘strategy’, following the administration’s firm stand on fining them for the shoddy pothole filling work last monsoon.

“We worked so hard to fill all potholes. Some of us had to give up our holidays. Despite all this, if the administration wants us to fine, then we do not want to work in the roads department,” said Sainath Rajadhyaksha, general secretary, Brihanmumbai Municipal Engineers’ Union.

Rajadhyaksha said a letter signed by all sub-engineers from the roads department, asking for transfer to other departments, would be sent to the municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte in the next two days.

“Transfer us to a different department. We do not want to work in a department, where our hard work is not appreciated,” he said, making it clear that engineers will not pay a single rupee as fine to the administration.

“Under which provision are you slapping the fine on us? There is no such act and the decision is illegal,” Rajadhyaksha said.

The engineers are particularly unhappy with the online pothole tracking system introduced by the civic body this year to monitor the pothole filling work.

“It seems they are too dependent on that system. Let the system fill the potholes, why do they need engineers,” said one of the engineers who attended the meeting.

The total fine on the sub-engineers is around Rs1.33 crore. Each engineer was charged for each delayed day at the rate of Rs. 1,000 a pothole.

Additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta had told HT that the administration would not revoke the fines, but would evaluate the performance before fixing the fine.